Business Is Good. Why Should I Keep Marketing?

If your view of marketing equates to advertising for new business, then you may question why you want to continue marketing activities if business is going great. This kind of “use it when you need it” strategy doesn’t work for many reasons.

First, we need to clarify the difference between advertising and marketing. Simplest analogy: Advertising is posting your profile on a dating site, hoping someone will contact you. Marketing is actually meeting and going out on dates with your prospect. Marketing is all about developing and strengthening a relationship with someone who has already become aware of you. So consider posting social media with the intention of introducing your business and gaining new followers – that is a form of advertising. Posting social media content with the intention of providing continuing information and value is marketing.

Recently I held a marketing strategy session with a small service-based firm to discuss “if” they needed marketing. They had been in business for a few years, making a nice profit from several large, long term projects.

However, their last large project finished, and they were only actively working on a few smaller, short term projects, with no new prospects on the horizon. They could predict when the revenue would dry up, and it was just a few months away. With a monthly rent and employee paychecks to sustain, the realization finally hit that they “might” have to refresh and ramp up their marketing. But they didn’t know where to start and how to plan a budget.

I pointed out some sore spots that needed attention right away if there was any hope of attracting new prospects: their website was mostly images and their social media accounts were populated (by their team members) perhaps once every six months, among other red flags. I identified 1 or 2 pieces of marketing activity that required a budget set aside to pay a pro, but most of what we discussed simply involved a plan and organized activity. Their fear of what I might propose gave way to relief that it was clear and simple.

Of course it does – it may take on very different forms and use different kinds of messaging, but every single type of business, non-profit and industry needs marketing to keep a flow of potential revenue in the pipeline.

If a company prefers to “save money” by doing little to no marketing, insisting that their team split their time between their day to day work, and posting random social media ideas, then a month of zero revenue is in their future.

Marketing for your small business doesn’t require the budget that Mercedes or Apple has. Yet, while those huge firms deliver products we all want to buy, they still rely on a steady stream of marketing initiatives and campaigns.

While it doesn’t make sense for a small business to spend as much money or hire a full marketing team than the larger companies do, all businesses do need to set aside time to plan and implement a smart marketing strategy.

How Do You Feel About Your Business’ Marketing?

If you’re not sure which direction your marketing should take – what channels – what content – what frequency – then stop wasting valuable time and schedule a Marketing Strategy Session with me to gain clarity and direction.